Managerial Skills

A manager's job is varied and complex. Managers need certain
skills to perform the duties and activities associated with
being a manager. What type of skills does a manager need?
Research by Robert L. Katz found that managers needed three
essential skills. These are technical skills, human skills and
conceptual skills. Technical skills include knowledge of and
proficiency in a certain specialized field, such as engineering,
computers, financial and managerial accounting, or
manufacturing. These skills are more important at lower levels
of management since these managers are dealing directly with
employees doing the organization's work. Human skills involve
the ability to work well with other people both individually and
in a group. Because managers deal directly with people, this
skill is crucial! Managers with good human skills are able to
get the best out of their people. They know how to communicate,
motivate, lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust. These skills
are equally important at all levels of management. Finally
conceptual skills are the skills managers must have to think and
conceptualize about abstract and complex situations. Using these
skills managers must be able to see the organization as a whole,
understand the relationship among various subunits, and
visualize how the organization fits into its broader
environment. These skills are most important at top level
management. A professional association of practicing managers,
the American Management Association, has identified important
skills for managers that encompass conceptual, communication,
effectiveness, and interpersonal aspects. These are briefly
described below: Conceptual Skills: Ability to use information
to solve business problems, identification of opportunities for
innovation, recognizing problem areas and implementing
solutions, selecting critical information from masses of data,
understanding the business uses of technology, understanding the
organization's business model. Communication Skills: Ability to
transform ideas into words and actions, credibility among
colleagues, peers, and subordinates, listening and asking
questions, presentation skills and spoken format, presentation
skills; written and graphic formats Effectiveness Skills:
Contributing to corporate mission/departmental objectives,
customer focus, multitasking; working at multiple tasks at
parallel, negotiating skills, project management, reviewing
operations and implementing improvements, setting and
maintaining performance standards internally and externally,
setting priorities for attention and activity, time management.
Interpersonal Skills: Coaching and mentoring skills, diversity
skills; working with diverse people and culture, networking
within the organization, networking outside the organization,
working in teams; cooperation and commitment. In today's
demanding and dynamic workplace, employees who are invaluable to
an organization must be willing to constantly upgrade their
skills and take on extra work outside their own specific job
areas. There is no doubt that skills will continue to be an
important way of describing what a manager does.

About the author:


Rashid Javed is an Asian author. He writes articles about
business and management
accounting. He focuses on budgeting and planning, business improvement
programs, and financial statement analysis etc.